Ripe on time: light over heat
At Uncorked all our Pommards come from the village of Puligny and are made of Chardonnay - it's just better that way. After all, when you've got Jean-Marc Boillot and Lydie over-performing on the whites so magnificently it would be madness to ignore them. In fact so on fire have they been since 2012 that there ought to be a fleet of fire engines constantly outside the cellars.
At Domaine Drouhin picking also started early and the cellar regime for 2015 involved a bit less work and a lot more time, so although the fruit was less worked on, the total maceration time for the reds was increased by over a week. The resulting wines have depth and a velvety character and Veronique compared 2015 to 2002.
'2015 was always going to be an early vintage, we just didn't know how early.' So said Alex Moreau at Domaine Bernard Moreau when we arrived. At flowering they had planned to pick early September, but after an August storm corrected the hydric stress, the vines powered on and harvest began on 28th August. Despite perfect ripeness, alcohol here didn't exceed 13%. Alex made the important point that with an early start to the season the grapes see longer hours of sunlight. And it is light that ripens fruit, not heat. The wines are rich but beautifully balanced. Thierry Pillot echoed a lot of Alex's sentiments but noted that at Domaine Paul Pillot, his natural yeast fermentation took a few days to get going as that beneficial rain storm had washed some of the yeast off the fruit. Thierry has used a bit less new oak this vintage, in common with many other producers.
In Meursault at Domaine Ballot-Millot we had the luxury of an extended appointment with Charles Ballot. His wines have been impressing me for ages now with their purity and he is one of those moving away from the artificially fat lees-stirred Meursaults of old. He has completely revivified his vineyard soils since 2000 using compost and the results are obvious. At Domaine Tessier Arnaud and Catharine also eschew a lot of lees stirring and made some energetic, zesty and naturally rich Meursaults. Finally they can afford to build a cellar extension, so they'll have space to vinify much more of their fruit, rather than have to sell it off to negociants.
Easily the most successful of the various Colins in the area, Damien and his siblings at Domaine Marc Colin waited until 2nd September on their higher altitude vineyards to harvest after the month-end heat spike. They have made stunningly complex wines with much less new oak and the use of larger barrels for more finesse. We've been touting this estate for years now and the constant improvement is very gratifying. /CW
